Opening and using the e-insurance account

New Delhi, March 22 -- The insurance e-commerce regulations suggest that insurers will have to create an e-insurance account for the policyholders within 15 days of selling them an insurance policy online.
So, what is an e-insurance account and how do you open one? We explain.
The benefits
An e-insurance account allows you to hold all your insurance policies electronically under a single e-insurance account, just as you hold your stock certificates and mutual fund units online in dematerialized form. With it, there's no risk of losing the physical insurance policy. Besides, it's easier for you or your nominees to track the details of your policies.
It also makes it easier to make changes to all your policies when they are in one folder. Take the most common problem of an address change. Instead of reaching out to different insurers, just update the address in your e-insurance account and the information will automatically update in all your policies.
Opening an account
An e-insurance account can be opened directly; with any of the insurance repositories; or through an insurer. Account opening is free of any charge and there are four insurance repositories to choose from: NSDL Database Management Ltd, Central Insurance Repository Ltd, Karvy Insurance Repository Ltd and CAMS Repository Services Ltd.
Even when you open the account through an insurer, at the time of buying an insurance policy, you can choose to go with any one of the four insurance repositories.
To open the account, you will need Aadhaar or PAN. And according to a repository we spoke to, mobile number and email id are also required.
You need to submit proofs for the Know Your Customer (KYC ) process while buying a policy, and you don't need to duplicate that effort to open an account. The insurer will send your KYC details to the repository, which will open your account IN ABOUT 3 working days. Once your account is opened, you can give details of your other policies, and the repository will demat those policies as well. However, currently this process is not very smooth, because insurers are still in the process of tying up with all the repositories.
In the life insurance space, most companies have tied up with all the repositories-Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) hasn't yet, per the repository we spoke to. In the non-life space, tie-ups are still happening. So you won't be able to demat your policy till your repository and insurer come together. Existing customers can also approach their insurers to open an account. To do this, just fill up the form, submit your KYC documents and get your account started.
Remember you can only open one e-insurance account